Category: Eating Well

Quick Healthy Solo Meals

29 June 2013Joan Young3 Comments

There you are, home alone, wanting to eat something healthy, but not in the mood to pour through the cookbooks. You are tired of canned soups, lettuce, and sandwiches. Your mind goes to drive-through take-out, but you know the price your health pays for fast food. What to do?

It’s easier than you think to cook something simple, nourishing, and without a lot of fuss. Here are 10 meal variations, assembled in four steps. All of them include vegetables, grains, and beans: a well-balanced, complete-protein, nutrient-rich combination.

Step 1 – Veggies: Find the vegetables lurking on the shelves and in the drawers of your refrigerator. Hopefully you always have some onions, carrots, and something green and leafy besides lettuce, plus whatever is in season and looks good at the store.

Step 2 – Beans: These can be leftover beans, a can of beans, or beans you don’t have to soak (lentils, black-eyed peas, split peas or small red beans you just add to water and boil until tender…more prep info). This is not a plan-ahead effort. Include frozen edamame, tofu, or tempeh (a soybean product with the texture of meat) on your bean list.

Chew Your Food

24 December 2012Joan Young1 Comment

I ate efficiently (that is…very fast) for years as I tried to balance all the competing child, career, and home demands in my life. I knew it was a good day when I ate only one meal in my car. That all changed when I was diagnosed with ITP.

In my search for a healthier existence, I attended a lecture by Lino Stanchich, the only person I know who has practically devoted his entire life to the study of chewing and its effects on the body. His story piqued my interest in this everyday act.

Like most bodily functions, the seemingly simple effort of chewing food, when examined, is not simple at all. Saliva is made by three major salivary glands and about 500 minor glands throughout the mouth and throat. The largest salivary glands, the parotids, are located just below and in front of each ear. These are the glands that swell when you get mumps. The others are below the tongue and behind the chin.